or other, which have been written about the Indian
Mutiny.

Before entering on my reminiscences I may mention that I never
previously had an opportunity of revisiting any of the scenes of which I
am about to write since I had been an actor in them. My readers will,
therefore, understand that it was with strongly mixed feelings both of
pleasure and sorrow, not unmingled with gratitude, that I started by the
mail train from Howrah in August, 1892, to revisit Cawnpore and Lucknow
for the first time, with the terrible scenes of 1857 and 1858 still
vividly photographed, as it were, on my memory. In the course of
thirty-five years of the life of even the most commonplace individual
there are events which are never forgotten, and certain friends are lost
who are never replaced; so much so, that in thinking of the past one is
almost compelled to exclaim with Solomon,--"Vanity of vanities, all is
vanity! One generation passeth away and another generation cometh," and
the end of all is "vanity and vexation of spirit." But to the Christian,
in grand contrast to the vanity and changeableness of this life, stands
out like a rock the promise of the Eternal, the Self-existing, and
Unchangeable Jehovah. "The Eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are
the everlasting arms!" But I am no _padre_, and must not commence to
moralise or preach. What tempts me do so is the fact that there is a
class of writers in the present day who not only deny the truth of many
of the fondly-treasured recollections of the past, which have become
part of our national history, but who would, if it were possible, refine
even God Himself out of creation, and hand us all over to blind chance
for our existence! But enough; I must hark back to 1857.

On the return of the Ninety-Third from the Crimea they were quartered at
Dover, and in April, 1857, the regiment was detailed for the expedition
forming for China under Lord Elgin, and all time-expired men and those
unfit for foreign service were carefully weeded from the service
companies and formed into a depot. The ten service companies were
recruited by volunteers from the other Highland regiments, the
Forty-Second, Seventy-Second, Seventy-Ninth, and Ninety-Second, each
giving a certain number of men, bringing the Ninety-Third up to a corps
of eleven hundred bayonets. About the 20th of May the Ninety-Third left
Dover for Portsmouth, where we were reviewed by the Queen accompanied by
Sir Colin Campbell, who too